1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, a printer device, and a computer readable recording medium.
2. Related Art
When multi-value raster data that is input via a computer or a scanner is printed out by a printer device, a binarizing operation using a threshold matrix such as a dither matrix that is set in accordance with the characteristics of the image processing apparatus is performed for the input multi-value raster data. Based on the binarized raster data, a printing operation is performed by the printer device.
The number, the size, and the shape of dots that can be formed vary among printer devices. Therefore, an image processing apparatus needs to perform a binarizing operation suitable for the characteristics of respective image processing apparatus devices.
When a printing operation using raster data binarized in accordance with the characteristics of a certain printer device is performed by another printer device, the image quality is degraded, as interference fringes are formed in the output image or the gradient is impaired.
To counter this problem, it is known that when a printing operation using raster data binarized in accordance with the characteristics of a certain printer device is performed by a different printer device, the binarized raster data is converted into multi-value image data, and a binarizing operation according to the characteristics of the different printer device is performed. However, a printing operation that does not cause degradation of image quality cannot be performed by any conventional technique, unless a multi-value process is carried out.